The World's Most Important 6-sec Drum Loop

This fascinating, brilliant 20-minute video narrates the history of the "Amen Break," a six-second drum sample from the b-side of a chart-topping single from 1969. This sample was used extensively in early hip hop and sample-based music, and became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music -- a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures. Nate Harrison's 2004 video is a meditation on the ownership of culture, the nature of art and creativity, and the history of a remarkable music clip.

Get Freaky!

Every once in a while you got to get a little freaky....LET'S FREAK OUT!!!!!


Roy Ayers Ubiquity: Freaky Deaky


Here's a piece of disco funk freak from jazzer Roy Ayers. This song is made to boogie and it does just that. Find it on 1978's Let's Do It or the more readily available Evolution: The Polydor Anthology.

Betty Davis: He Was a Big Freak


If you want to know what 'gettin' freaky' is all about check out the cover to Betty Davis' 1974 album They Say I'm Different. Just listen to these lyrics and let your mind wander.

Funkadelic: Freak of the Week


I've really been listening to a lot of Funkadelic lately and I'll have to give Mr. Clinton and crew a dedicated post very soon. Funkadelic is dirty, scary, funny, heavy and always freaky. I think some of their heavier tunes are what Jimi Hendrix might have been up to had he lived through the 70's. Here's some groovy lowriding disco from 1979's Uncle Jam Wants You.